How I photographed and edited a girl “dressed in water”

Brazilian photographer Felipe Dalla Costa took a photo that immediately caught my eye, and made me want to find out more. In the photo, there’s a girl stands on the top of a small waterfall, and it looks like she’s dressed in water. DIYP contacted Felipe to ask for some more details, and he shared with us how he took and edited this interesting image.

As for the gear, the photo was taken with Nikon D750 and Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. There was no lighting gear, but Felipe only used natural light. The camera settings were: f/4, shutter speed 1/20 and ISO 50. This is the photo straight out of camera:

As Felipe says, he edited the photo 70% in Lightroom and 30% in Photoshop. In Lightroom, he fixed the colors, exposure, crop and the like. Then he used Photoshop to merge water with the dress.

In Photoshop, he duplicated the water, warped it around the dress, then changed the blending mode to Screen. He did some minor retouching on the water with a white brush just to make it look more realistic. And this is the final result:

Felipe Dalla Costa is an event, family and wedding photographer from Joaçaba, Brazil. If you liked this photo and want to see more of his work, follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

Clinton Lofthouse is a Photographer, Retoucher and Digital Artist based in the United Kingdom, who specialises in creative retouching and composites. Proud 80's baby, reader of graphic novels and movie geek!
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page